The Therapeutic Interview in Mental Health
A Values-Based and Person-Centered Approach

The therapeutic interview approach looks at patients' experiences, emotions and values as the keys to understanding their suffering.

Giovanni Stanghellini (Author), Milena Mancini (Author)

9781107499089, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 August 2017

186 pages, 3 tables
23.3 x 15.5 x 1 cm, 0.35 kg

Emotions and values are considered the keys to understanding peoples' experiences and actions within the world they inhabit. The traditional symptom-led clinical interview is frequently criticised for ignoring the narrative of a patient's experience in favour of ticking-off symptoms that can be reduced or controlled. In response, this important new book seeks to understand a patient's sufferings through their individual experiences and values. The Therapeutic Interview in Mental Health is about the art of asking questions. This comprehensive book will equip psychologists, psychiatrists and clinicians with the tools to begin unlocking the emotions and experiences of their patients. The method of the therapeutic interview is explained in a step-by-step way, allowing the reader to understand the clinical interview as a means of beginning a shared understanding between patient and clinician. This book is an essential read for all psychologists, psychiatrists, general clinicians, and medical trainees.

Part I. The Toolbox: 1. Introduction
2. The technical approach to interviewing
3. Main criticisms of the technical approach
4. The meaning of symptoms in the biomedical paradigm
5. The meaning of symptoms in the psychodynamic paradigm
6. The symptom as a text
7. The concept of 'life-world'
8. An example of life-world analysis
9. What are emotions and why are they relevant to the therapeutic interview?
10. What are values and why are they relevant to the therapeutic interview?
11. A quest for meaning
12. A decalogue for the therapeutic interview
Part II. Life-Worlds: 13. Introduction
14. The life-world of borderline persons
15. The life-world of persons with schizophrenia
16. The life-world of persons with melancholia
17. The life-world of persons with feeding and eating disorders.

Subject Areas: Clinical psychology [MMJ], Psychiatry [MMH]